Magic is powerful, dangerous and
addictive – and after passage of the 18th Amendment, it is finally illegal.

It’s 1926 in Washington, DC, and
while Anti-Sorcery activists have achieved the Prohibition of sorcery, the
city’s magic underworld is booming. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters’
crime sprees. Smugglers funnel magic contraband in from overseas. Gangs have
established secret performance venues where patrons can lose themselves in
magic, and take a mind-bending, intoxicating elixir known as the sorcerer’s
shine.

Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer
from Norfolk County, Virginia accepts an offer to work for DC’s most notorious
crime syndicate, the Shaw Gang, when her family’s home is repossessed. Alex
Danfrey, a first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past
and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the
Shaws.

Through different paths, Joan and
Alex tread deep into the violent, dangerous world of criminal magic – and when
their paths cross at the Shaws’ performance venue, despite their orders, and
despite themselves, Joan and Alex become enchanted with one another. But when
gang alliances begin to shift, the two sorcerers are forced to question their
ultimate allegiances and motivations. And soon, Joan and Alex find themselves
pitted against each other in a treacherous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.

A CRIMINAL MAGIC casts a spell of
magic, high stakes and intrigue against the backdrop of a very different
Roaring Twenties.

Lee Kelly has wanted to write
since she was old enough to hold a pencil, but it wasn’t until she began
studying for the California Bar Exam that she conveniently started putting pen
to paper. An entertainment lawyer by trade, Lee has practiced law in Los
Angeles and New York. She lives with her husband and children in Millburn, New
Jersey, though after a decade in Manhattan, she can’t help but still call
herself a New Yorker. She is the author of A Criminal Magic and City of
Savages. Visit her at www.NewWriteCity.com.

GANGSTERS!
Real-Life Gangsters that Inspired the Tough Guys in A CRIMINAL MAGIC

The pitch
for my latest book, A CRIMINAL MAGIC, is THE NIGHT CIRCUS meets THE PEAKY
BLINDERS, and for anyone who’s seen that twisty, violent BBC drama, you’ll know
this means there’s some pretty hardened criminals in this one. My story takes
place during an alternative Prohibition-era America, but instead of alcohol,
magic has been prohibited. And just like during real Prohibition, gangsters
have created an extensive, lucrative underworld to make sure people still get
what they want, despite the letter of the law.

Because
the magic in this novel is tricky and dangerous by nature, I knew I needed
gangsters that weren’t just ruthless – these wise guys had to be clever,
driven, and one step ahead of the sorcerers they employ in all aspects of their
illegal trade. For inspiration and ideas, I naturally turned to history. Here are some of the notorious,
hardnosed gangsters that most inspired me while writing A CRIMINAL MAGIC:

Owen
“Owney” Madden was a New York gangster nicknamed “the Killer,” and aptly so as
he was known for his very public executions. Madden more than once gunned down
his rival gang members in the streets, and he allegedly shot a man on a trolley
for flirting with his date. Despite being a hothead, he was also a shrewd businessman,
and ran The Cotton Club (as well as some other swanky speakeasies) in New York
City. In my novel, Erwin McEvoy, the boss of the Irish Shaw Gang, is loosely
based on Madden (with a little Boo Boo Hoff thrown in there too. Boo Boo’s up
next).

I have to
admit, I was first attracted to Max “Boo Boo” Hoff because of his name, but the
more I read about this Philly-based crime boss, the more fascinated I became.
Hoff was a boxer turned gangster, and his bootlegging operation was so
successful during Prohibition, it’s claimed he had an office of operations with
175 phones and a weekly payroll of $30,000 (in the 1920s)! Also known for his
partying and extravagant lifestyle, Hoff frequently rubbed shoulders with
celebrity types at his lavish affairs.

Also intriguing
was Guiseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria, the head of the New York Italian-American
mafia – the city’s powerful crime alliance known as the Five Families – during
the later years of Prohibition. But Masseria was a bit of an underworld
dictator: he even required monetary tributes from other Families as testaments
of their loyalty. His reign naturally didn’t last: several families declared
war on Masseria, which broke up the crime dynasty and led to his execution. I
loosely based my novel’s Italian-American gang, the D Street Outfit, on
Masseria’s New York operation.

And of
course, no list of Prohibition-era gangsters would be complete without Al
Capone. Though my novel’s young gangster-on-the-rise, Harrison Gunn, is
actually nothing like media-hungry Capone was, I couldn’t believe that Capone
was at the height of his power and became a Chicago crime boss in his
mid-twenties. So I made Gunn younger (originally he was going to be
middle-aged), to help rev up the tension between him and my female protagonist,
Joan.